Baseball bats and like articles are traditionally made of solid wood. These articles are relatively expensive and frequently break in use. Moreover it is difficult by natural limitations to design these products so that they will have sufficient strength as well as functional properties such as weight, balance and flexibility to resist breakage. As a result of these deficiencies, extruded tubular aluminum bats have been recently extensively used for baseball and softball games but have not adapted for professional play because of limitations on weight, strength, sound, performance and the traditional aesthetic preference for wood.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide baseball bat which utilizes cellulose materials, such as wood veneer or paper, as the laminate outer layer of the bat designed to complement and work with an inner layer or layers of synthetic reinforcing material and a central core. This composition produces an engineered composite with the desired weight, strength, stiffness and flexibility to produce a bat with more desirable performance characteristics and a longer life than either the solid wood or extruded bats.